Monday, 21 December 2009

I feel like there's no time at all between now and Christmas - so blogging will have to take a back seat for a few days. I have so much I want to blog but no time to do it - once I get on the computer time seems to fly by and half the day has gone.

Saturday, 19 December 2009

I'm very pleased with the result. The pattern is Precious by Kim Hargreaves from Heartfelt. I used Patons misty 4ply mohair (less than 3 balls used) instead of the Rowan kidsilk haze - I couldn't face using that yarn again.

The Patons misty was much easier to knit with, it knits to the same tension as kidsilk haze - I'd definitely use this yarn again (I've actually got 7 balls of the yarn left, so I will be using it again sometime!)

I made two modifications to the pattern. The first was not to include beads around the front edging - I would have been in danger of out-sparkling the Christmas tree - also I ran out of beads anyway - it takes a lot more than you realise. The second modification was to crochet around the front edging rather than pick up and knit over 200 stitches - much quicker and easier to manage with the crochet.

This will look lovely on Christmas day - very feminine and dainty.

Having finished that I've started the Snow Queen by Alan Dart - hopefully I'll have this finished in a few days - although she's bigger than you think. There's cricket on television during the day - England v South Africa test series - and darts - World Championship - in the evening. Plenty of knitting time.

I realised the other day, that with all these exciting must-knit projects I've been working on, I haven't done any housework for a while. That's the great thing about Christmas, it's a wonderful excuse to change your routine. Anyway, I spent Thursday with the vacuum cleaner and cleaned one of the bathrooms this morning - that clears up some of the guilt, so I can get back to the knitting this afternoon.

I have finally worked out why I don't feel organised at the moment - apart from the hectic Christmas excuse - I've lost my table! In the living room we have an octagonal table with a lovely, cheerful red gingham table cloth on it. Eve occasionally uses it for homework, Grace and Chris never use it, but I sit at it all the time. It is my place - the place where I write my lists, plan my day, knit and sew, read my books. But now it's gone - in order to make way for the Christmas tree the table had to be moved out into the garage. I miss it so much - now I have to sit on the sofa like everyone else - it's not the same - list-making just isn't as effective there. Well that's my excuse at the moment anyway.

Thursday, 17 December 2009

I had originally intended to crochet a number of snowflakes to stick on the walls. I found a pattern at MYpicot that had 7 different designs for Snowflake tree decorations.

Here's the one I made.

It's bigger than I thought it would be so more a doily than a tree decoration. I used Anchor crochet cotton #12. It took only a few hours to make but there are no written instructions just a chart. The chart was however very clear and matched exactly to the size of my work.

I will make more of these - but probably next year - the other designs are just as pretty. In a thicker yarn, maybe 4ply cotton, they would make lovely place mats for the Christmas table.

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

Progress is being made, I am glad to say, on all my Christmas preparations. I'm nearly at the end of my list of secret makes - should be done by tomorrow. I still have other things I want to make but I don't have to wait until everyone is out of the house before I can get the needles and hooks out.

As a diversion (do I really need these?) I made a snail for one of Eve's friends. I'm not interested in re-inventing the wheel, so if there's a pattern already out there I'm happy to use it. I found an interesting pattern on Ravelry. Here is the snail, his name is Harold.

The pattern is Snails by Smeddley. It uses short row shaping to get the curves on the shell and body and is not too difficult to make. He's generously sized - approximately 3 inches long. He would probably benefit from a bit more colour - something bright and randomly-dyed would be an improvement.

As far as other projects are concerned, Precious is coming along nicely. It's very quick to knit and the Patons misty is so much better to work with than Rowan's kidsilk haze - and they knit to exactly the same tension.

Chris and I were away for a couple of days last week so I managed to get quite a lot of knitting done in the car. I should have this finished by the weekend.

After that I plan to start work on the snow queen. The Darts World Championship starts on Friday so plenty of evening knitting and watching over the next week.

Eve continues with her daily Advent surprise blog. Today's blog looks very tasty so I might post some pics to show you.

Important note
The third row of the pattern decreases the number of stitches on the needles. This should be taken into account when increasing and decreasing at the ends of rows.

BACK

Using 3.75mm needles cast on 125 (141, 157) sts.
Work in fancy rib pattern for 20 (22, 24) rows.
Keeping pattern as set correct make the following decreases.
Decrease at each end of next row and 5 following 6th rows. 113 (129, 145) sts.

Work 5 rows without shaping.

Increase at each end of next row and 5 following 8th rows. 125 (141, 157) sts.

Shape shoulders and back neck
Cast off 8 (9, 10) sts at the beginning of the next 6 rows.
Leave the remaining 45 (51, 59) sts on a stitch holder.

FRONT
Work as given for back to **
Work straight for 6 rows.

Divide for neck
Pattern 36 (39, 42) sts, turn. Leave the remaining 57 (66, 77) stitches on a separate stitch holder.
Decrease at neck edge on next 6 rows. 30 (33, 36) sts
Decrease at neck edge on next 3 alternate rows. 27 (30, 33) sts
Decrease at neck edge on 3 following 4th rows. 24 (27, 30) sts
Pattern without shaping until the front measures the same as the back to the beginning of the shoulder shaping, ending with RS facing for next row.

Monday, 7 December 2009

As part of my Christmas knitting, one of the things I thought I would do was to knit a cover for a glass jar so that I could put sweets and chocolates in it. We do actually have lots of jars and bowls that would do for this purpose but there's nothing like knitting something trivial to make you feel creative and festive.

I used the same Sirdar Click DK yarn as I used for my crocheted letters and knitted in the round. It's just plain stocking stitch until you get to the 'neck' of the jar. I then did a row of eyelet holes and followed this with some ribbing. I finished off with a picot edged cast off. Finally I threaded a ribbon through the eyelet holes.

It looks quite effective, so if I find myself with any time to waste between now and Christmas, I may knit some more!

Now that Lauren is finished, I have started knitting Kim Hargreaves' Precious - this is what I want to wear on Christmas day. I started it last night and this is what I managed to get done in a few hours.

I'm using silver beads but I'm worried they might be a bit too conspicuous - OK for Christmas day but what about wearing it at other times? I think I'll have to become a party animal to make the most of it!

Sunday, 6 December 2009

It is a close-fitting sweater in a textured fancy rib. I used James C. Brett pure merino double knitting wool which is lovely and soft, the end result is a snug sweater that isn't too bulky. The wool is also very reasonably priced.

The fancy rib pattern is derived from an old magazine that belonged to my Grandma, dating back to the 1940s. It is very stretchy and so well suited to the close fitting design.

It took me a few goes to get the sleeve sizing correct. Because the pattern is very stretchy in the horizontal direction it was difficult to gauge how many stitches to cast on and then, when and how many increases to make. Third time lucky I got it right. The sleeve head worked out beautifully - I used Pythagoras's' theorem to work out the sizing for this!

I will post the actual pattern in the next few days - I need to get the calculator out again to work out the instructions for the larger sizes.

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Following on from the wonderful and inspiring blog from the other day, I spent an indulgent afternoon yesterday with paper, scissors, lace, buttons, stamps and lots of glue! Here's the mess I made over the floor.

And here is a card I made.

I'm so pleased with the result, although my photography doesn't do the card justice.

I used a Christmas tree card that folds out into a pyramid shape. I cut a piece of Christmas themed paper to cover the front, then added lace and ribbon. I found some old Christmas stamps in my collection and stuck these on thin coloured card that had been cut with a fancy edging. I added this to the card together with some buttons tied with embroidery thread. I think the finished result has a Victorian scrapbook feel to it.

Here are all 6 cards I made.

I really enjoyed making these and the idea could be adapted for birthday cards or other occasions. So thank you Cherry's Jubilee for the inspiration.

Tuesday, 1 December 2009

They are crocheted and the pattern is Little Santa by SoL. They are quick to make but I didn't make a separate hat, as the pattern instructs, I just extended the head in the hat colour and then embroidered a round of chain stitch around the brim. They could be made into tree decorations, but I think these will sit on a shelf or window ledge somewhere.

When it comes to browsing on the Internet I'm not very adventurous - so for my Advent calendar Eve is giving me a new web address to explore each day. Today's address is Cherry's Jubilee. It's packed full of lovely cards. Here's a sample:

These letters cards are wonderful - another use for crochet letters?

Wow! What an inspiration! It makes my idea for this year's Christmas cards seem quite boring. Tomorrow I think I'll get the fancy papers, buttons, ribbons and lace out and have a go at something like these. I like the idea of incorporating Christmas stamps into the design (I must confess to being a stamp collector in my dim and distant past - so this will come in useful now).

I can't wait to see tomorrow's surprise blog, especially if it is as inspirational as today's.

I live in Liverpool, UK, with my wonderful husband. I have two amazing girls, who are all grown up now and have flown the nest. I love knitting, crocheting and many more crafts - I'm happiest when I'm creating.
I love being inspired by the blogs I read and the pictures I see on Pinterest. I hope that, in turn, I can be an inspiration, through my blog, to others.

All the patterns on my blog are free for you to download for your personal use - I enjoy sharing. However, they are my patterns so please respect my work and do not sell the patterns or anything made from the patterns for profit. Thank you.